Interview: Youssou N'Dour
Updated on 26 July 2009
Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour speaks exclusively to Channel 4 News about world music and his campaign on malaria prevention. Krishnan Guru-Murthy went to meet him.
Youssou N'Dour is best known in this country for the track Seven Seconds, his duet with Neneh Cherry which became a chart hit in 1994.
The Senegalese singer, songwriter and composer is one of the most celebrated African musicians in history, fusing traditional beats from his country with influences ranging from Cuban samba to hip-hop, jazz and soul.
He has collaborated with the likes of Sting, Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen and performed at three Live 8 concerts. Rolling Stone magazine described him as perhaps the most famous singer in Africa.
He is on tour in Britain at the moment, performing at the Womad (World of Music, Arts and Dance) festival tonight, and he took time out to speak exclusively to Channel 4 News.
He explained how the Womad festival began is international career, and how he is proud the festival brought world music to a wider audience.
"In the beginning they didn't know exactly how diverse is the music coming from under-developed countries, how complex is the music coming from under-developed countries."
When asked about the commitment of the music industry in Europe and the US to world music, he said: "I think in beginning it was a little bit difficult with the African music and with the world music. People were trying to get bigger fast and it was not possible.
"The public was learning more to accept, to receive, to listen to music from different parts of the world. Today, everybody - the musicians, the crowd, the press - everyone understands the music coming from what we call world music."
He described world music as "something coming from nowhere".
"Everybody is coming somewhere with something, like I'm coming from Africa. I'm not bringing all my African music. I bring something like what we did early in 80's with Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon - everybody trying to bring a little bit."
He described his involvement in the Malaria No More campaign saying: "I decided to do something because one part of the responsibility is coming from people.
"[People] didn't know really they could die the same night. When I understood that I dedicate all my music, all my tours and energy, to go to the international level to tell people malaria is very dangerous, we have to put more resource to reverse this problem."
He says one of his aims is to get every African child to sleep under a mosquito net.
When asked his opinion on western pop stars campaigning on Africa, he said it was important to get everyone involved.
"In the 80s, people would talk about Africa and the image was something like Ethiopia or something like that in the past. But today I think the approach is different.
"People have more information about Africa and more solutions about the problem. They have the possibility to talk to private people together, not government to government. I think a lot of things are changing now."
He said the image of President Obama in Africa were positive, but added: "Lets see in four years how President Obama changes the relationship between Africa and the US or international things. Lets see."
He reflected on where his music is now: "I'm happy and I think today what we're doing is more sure, more powerful.
"People are ready now more than 20 years ago to talk about world music, African music. They can dance African music naturally and they understand Africans still keeping local language and local music sound."
